BBC Studios
5 HN mentions · mentioned in 5 months, 2010–2025
3:02 · 2.9M views · Dec 20, 2008
A short Fry and Laurie sketch in which a man returns from vacation to find his local police station has been privatized, with paid tiers of service. It satirizes privatization of public services.
HN commenters use it as a joking reference when discussing privatization, outsourcing and absurd bureaucracy.
5 comments from Hacker News
You can't sell yourself into chattel slavery even if you are an "expert." For good reason. Either you allow those sorts of contracts or you acknowledge that some contracts are unconscionable. Being able to opt out of the legal system would result in private "security" forces with the legal right to hold you upside down by the ankles and shake until you pay up (but, hey, the interest rate was better than the payday loan company that didn't make you sign away your rights, so you took the one with the opt-out). The result would be something out of "Snow Crash." Or a TV sketch: this video
Having used some of the best and worst public transport systems in India, I wish they would consider their passengers customers. Most of the times, people who run public transport systems where their jobs are guaranteed treat you like an annoyance to be somehow tolerated, and often yelled at. I guess there is a golden median between that and something like this ( this video ).
They qualify their usage of business-speak: > Our growth strategy is obviously not about making profit, but we are a small team at the centre of government and we need to make sure our people and our money are focused on services that have the biggest reach and the most impact. It's not quite Fry and Laurie yet. "Oh, you have shares in the Royal Family?" this video
This is what the USA looks like from socialist-land (aka Britain): this video Whilst the idea of the government paying for healthcare may seem ridiculous to you it seems just as ridiculous to us that you might be ill and not be able to afford treatment.
The plan is to have no government agencies at all, but to have private companies run everything, like jokingly in this Fry and Laurie sketch this video